Conference Provides Forum for Executives and End-users to Discuss Trends and Challenges in the Global FPD Industry

OKINAWA, Japan – March 3, 2006 – FPD industry executives gathered this past week in Okinawa, Japan, for the second annual Global Flat Panel Display Partners Conference (GFPC) to discuss the outlook and provide forecasts for the worldwide FPD industry. Building on the format of 2005’s inaugural conference, GFPC 2006 further established the event as a productive forum for bringing executives and end-users together to discuss FPD trends and opportunities, while sharing best practices and methodologies for the future of the global FPD industry. Over 175 senior-level executives from more than 10 countries attended the highly successful three day event.

The GFPC received strong support from the Okinawa government. Mr. Shinichi Matsumoto, sightseeing director of Okinawa-Prefecture Commercial, Industrial, Sightseeing Division delivered the opening address for the conference.

“We are very pleased with the continued success of the GFPC,” said Takashi Kumagai, president of SEMI Japan. “This summit, while only in its second year, has been very successful in drawing the majority of major FPD companies and related organizations from all over the world together in a true spirit of collaboration.“

Conference Highlights

The second annual GFPC featured keynote speeches from all major FPD manufacturing and design regions including China, Europe, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US. Keynote speakers represented a number of leading organizations including Philips Mobile Display Systems, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, AU Optronics, Toshiba and DTV.

In her keynote address, Bai Weimin, director and senior engineer of the Department of Electronics and IT Products Division at the China Ministry of Information Industry, discussed China’s response to the digitization of TV and conversion to FPD.

Ho Kyoon Chung, executive vice president of Samsung SDI believes that AM-OLEDs are likely the ideal display technology for future mobile applications and digital TVs. He also discussed many of the challenges and opportunities surrounding OLED technology, and estimates that the cost of producing such technologies will decrease significantly over the next 10 years, by mass producing the displays using plastic bases.

The GFPC also featured several insightful panel discussions that provided outlooks and forecasts on future display technologies, the future of the PC monitor and the grand finale panel, which focused on the question “How does FPD TV change at the digital hi-vision era?”